What have you opened this week?

[Andy Velebil]

Last week I opened this 1991 Croft VP. It is my third or fourth bottle from a case of 12. The bottles all look beautiful, and the previous bottles have been tasty good. But upon removing the capsule of this one, I saw what first looked like embossed wax underneath. But that would be unexpected. Further inspection and removal showed that this bottle was a leaker, and that red stuff was an organic growth of some kind. It looks interesting, but doesn't bode well. I removed it and cleaned up the top of the bottle, then decanted. Wine smelled fine and tasted nice hours later.

That unintended embossing is cool. Glad it seems ok.

[Tom Archer]

Croft '60

Dark wine with clear meniscus - superb rich juice with loads of life left. One of the best 60's IMO

Score 9-9

[Eric Menchen]

1977 Warres VP. This was a known leaker, with a lot of crap under the capsule, so I got out the tongs for this one. And for a experiment, I tried heating just on my stove. And to my pleasant surprise, this worked!

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[David Spriggs]

I Love it!

[Andy Velebil]

Tongs...well done. how long did it take for them to get hot enough on the stove?

[David Spriggs]

1983 Gould Campbell Vintage Port.... seems like it's corked. I'll let it breathe.

[Tom Archer]

1983 Gould Campbell Vintage Port.... seems like it's corked. I'll let it breathe.

Ten years ago the word 'corked' cropped up frequently when it came to TN's on '83's, but they've almost grown out of it now as the corks have saturated - unless of course you've got a re-corked late released bottle..

- What's the cork like?

[Mike J. W.]

1983 Gould Campbell Vintage Port.... seems like it's corked. I'll let it breathe.

Ten years ago the word 'corked' cropped up frequently when it came to TN's on '83's, but they've almost grown out of it now as the corks have saturated - unless of course you've got a re-corked late released bottle..

- What's the cork like?

I've got a bottle or two of the '83 in the basement, but haven't tried one yet. Hopefully they don't have a cork issue. In general I think the Gould Campbell line is greatly underrated. The '80's are phenomenal although I did open two bottles on the same day that were both moldy under the cap and horribly flawed. That was a sad day indeed.

[Mike J. W.]

Andresen '92 LBV bottled in 1998. Rose gold colored. Very cloudy, but a nice burnt sugar aroma to it. Very smooth. 91 score.

[David Spriggs]

Ten years ago the word 'corked' cropped up frequently when it came to TN's on '83's, but they've almost grown out of it now as the corks have saturated - unless of course you've got a re-corked late released bottle..

- What's the cork like?

This isn't a re-corked bottle. The cork was quite long and not fully saturated. Only the bottom bit dropped off into the wine. So I's say it was solid. There was mold under the capsule. Not necessarily a bad sign, but it can be. It got better with air (unusual), so I was thinking it was bottle stink. But I can see that it is subtly there. It doesn't present on the palate at all. There is a touch of in in the nose. So I'm not dumping it, but am not rating it either.

[David Spriggs]

I've got a bottle or two of the '83 in the basement, but haven't tried one yet. Hopefully they don't have a cork issue. In general I think the Gould Campbell line is greatly underrated. The '80's are phenomenal although I did open two bottles on the same day that were both moldy under the cap and horribly flawed. That was a sad day indeed.

In general the 1966 - 1985 Gould Campbell are fantastic!

[Tom Archer]

The cork was quite long and not fully saturated. Only the bottom bit dropped off into the wine. So I's say it was solid.

That sounds suspiciously like a bottle that spent much of it's life stored upright - but impossible to be certain.

[Andy Velebil]

Andresen '92 LBV bottled in 1998. Rose gold colored. Very cloudy, but a nice burnt sugar aroma to it. Very smooth. 91 score.

That’s one you don’t hear about...ever. Lol. Where’d you find that one?

[Tom Archer]

That’s one you don’t hear about...ever. Lol. Where’d you find that one?

Andresen crops up very rarely and erratically, but my impression of the wines has always been good. My very small selection of their wines is notable for having a very wide vintage gap, with nothing between 1884 and 1997!

[Andy Velebil]

That’s one you don’t hear about...ever. Lol. Where’d you find that one?

Andresen crops up very rarely and erratically, but my impression of the wines has always been good. My very small selection of their wines is notable for having a very wide vintage gap, with nothing between 1884 and 1997!

Agree. Except for last part, lol. (I have no old stuff from them)

[Moses Botbol]

'95 Dow QB VP. Was a pop and pour, but seems to be getting into its stride. Still on the primary side. Bottle was gone in an hour

[Mike J. W.]

Andresen '92 LBV bottled in 1998. Rose gold colored. Very cloudy, but a nice burnt sugar aroma to it. Very smooth. 91 score.

That’s one you don’t hear about...ever. Lol. Where’d you find that one?

There's this Portugese wine store in the Ironbound section of Newark. He has a pretty wide selection of Ports, but none of them are top tier producers except in off years. His prices are all over the map for his Ports and there doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to it. I bought this bottle along with a 1994 Dow LBV. I'm really enjoying this Andresen so I went back and bought another bottle yesterday (the bugger raised the price $4 in the interim). He still has a few more bottles of this and I noticed he also has some '95 Andresen LBV. I may have to pick up a bottle or two of that and try it.

Different store in the Ironbound, but I also found several 1910 Andresen Colheitas (bottled in 1994) as well as a 1968?, 1980 and 1982 Andresen Colheitas. I bought 1 each of the 1980 (barrel aged 32 years) and the 1982 (barrel aged 34 years) to try.

[Andy Velebil]

Andresen '92 LBV bottled in 1998. Rose gold colored. Very cloudy, but a nice burnt sugar aroma to it. Very smooth. 91 score.

That’s one you don’t hear about...ever. Lol. Where’d you find that one?

There's this Portugese wine store in the Ironbound section of Newark. He has a pretty wide selection of Ports, but none of them are top tier producers except in off years. His prices are all over the map for his Ports and there doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to it. I bought this bottle along with a 1994 Dow LBV. I'm really enjoying this Andresen so I went back and bought another bottle yesterday (the bugger raised the price $4 in the interim). He still has a few more bottles of this and I noticed he also has some '95 Andresen LBV. I may have to pick up a bottle or two of that and try it.

Different store in the Ironbound, but I also found several 1910 Andresen Colheitas (bottled in 1994) as well as a 1968?, 1980 and 1982 Andresen Colheitas. I bought 1 each of the 1980 (barrel aged 32 years) and the 1982 (barrel aged 34 years) to try.

Nice. Well done!

[Mike J. W.]

I've got a bottle or two of the '83 in the basement, but haven't tried one yet. Hopefully they don't have a cork issue. In general I think the Gould Campbell line is greatly underrated. The '80's are phenomenal although I did open two bottles on the same day that were both moldy under the cap and horribly flawed. That was a sad day indeed.

In general the 1966 - 1985 Gould Campbell are fantastic!

I have mostly 1977 and on for GC but I did win 2 1963 GC's at auction a few years back. I'm looking forward to cracking one of them open in the next year or so for a special occasion.

[Glenn E.]

1968 Krohn Colheita, bottled 2008.

I didn't like these all that much when I first got them (from Premier Cru), but they've improved pretty dramatically over the last couple of years and are now truly superb.